Another Deaf Teen Graduates High School
Sunday June 15, 2008
This article from the Progress-Index about Marcel Waters started off typically, but as I read further, it revealed something else. Waters had received a cochlear implant when he was a young boy, but it was not successful for him because of the side effects. Waters stopped using his implant. As I read more articles about the current deaf generation of late teens and early 20s heading off to college, I am beginning to wonder how many of them were early implantees for whom implants did not work?
The implant technology and also the surgery techniques, were not as developed back then. How many of the early implantees wound up paying the price? What is the ratio of successful "Rachels" to those for whom the implant failed, or for whom the aftereffects were so uncomfortable or painful that they had to stop using their implants? Are there any reliable, neutral statistics available to answer this question?
Comments
More than the cochlear implant industry is willing to admit. I would safely state the cochlear implants in 80’s and 90’s were experimental and lot were learn from the not successful cases.
hmm, interesting how you coined the term “Rachels”.
The facts about the safety and effectiveness of implants is critical. I would like to know if there is a government site that rates implants by model and manufacturer, the way cars are rated for safety. There are three corporations aggressively marketing implants, and many audiologists as well as MDs are the targets of this marketing. No doubt CIs have been a miracle for some recipients, but there have been failures too. What are the statistics? Where can we find out? There have been recent reversals of medical opinion about the safety and efficacy of many drugs and therapies (hormone replacement therapies, knee surgeries, for example). Will this be the case with cochlear implants? I think severe to profoundly hard of hearing people who are considering implants need facts, not advertisements, to help them make their decisions.
My child was implanted with a Cochlear implant in 1996. She’s had amazing success with the implant in that she learned to listen and speak in the hearing world. While these have been positive things, she’s also been living in a “half world”, somewhere between deaf culture and the hearing world, which on some level is unsatisfying for her. While I don’t question my decision 13 years ago to implant my then three year old, I do wish I had had greater knowledge in how I’ve raised her for the last 14 years. The teachers of the local public schools pushed oral-ism on us and made me feel as though the implant was the only right choice.
It would serve all parents well..hearing and deaf alike…to really take a long, hard look at the long term affect of raising a child with a cochlear implant. I am grateful that I continued to have interpreters with my daughter in school so that she was not solely dependent on the cochlear implant. At 16, my daughter is a well rounded young lady with the ability to chose which path to take in life.
You did well. Yes, you need to continue the interpreters because the implant is not perfect, and it is also battery-dependent.